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Hand-Tossed Tradition
By Emily Bertram // Photos by Switchboard
House of Pizza owner Brandon Testa has shown he can tee up new opportunities, while holding fast to his family roots and hometown flavors.
The Invisible Load
By Jeanine Nistler
Employers can benefit from recognizing and supporting the unseen responsibilities many employees carry outside of work.
What the Numbers Miss
By Alli Billy & Lynn MacDonald
Behind the measurable economic impacts of disruption are the less visible forces that shape communities and long-term outcomes.
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Hurry Up Slowly
Strategic decision-making is the process of evaluating options, risks, and long-term goals to make choices that drive an organization’s future success. Effective leaders balance data, experience, and collaboration while remaining adaptable, ensuring decisions align with their vision and can evolve as circumstances change.
Build In Accountability
Accountability often breaks down not because people lack commitment, but because expectations, ownership, and follow-through are unclear. Creating a culture of accountability requires leaders to set clear goals, define responsibilities, provide regular feedback, and model the behaviors they expect from others.
Customer Journey Maps
A customer journey map is a visual tool that helps businesses understand every interaction a customer has with their brand, from initial awareness through purchase and beyond. By identifying customer needs, motivations, and pain points at each stage, organizations can improve the customer experience, increase conversions, and build stronger long-term relationships.
Bonding Through Music
Research suggests that music helps strengthen social bonds by creating shared emotional experiences and connecting people through memories, rituals, and meaningful moments. These connections begin early in life, making music a powerful tool for fostering trust, belonging, and deeper relationships.
from this issue
Economy Central References
Note: The authors used AI tools for editing and clarity.
Chetty, R. et al. Social capital I: measurement and associations with economic mobility. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04996-4 (2022).
Glaeser, E., Laibson, D. and B. Sacerdote. “The Economic Approach to Social Capital” NBER working paper #7728 (June 2000). https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w7728/w7728.pdf
Hirschberger, G. Collective Trauma and the Social Construction of Meaning. Frontiers in Psychology v9 (2018).
Schwitzer, J., Rosenthal, A., and A. Sojourner. The Economic Impact of Operation Metro Surge in January 2026: A Synthetic Difference-in-Differences Analysis | North Star Policy Action (2026).
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/05/nx-s1-5801473/minneapolis-immigrants-grapple-with-economic-impact-of-operation-metro-surgehttps://www.minneapolismn.gov/news/2026/february/oms-impact/